Disklavier

“LIFE-SAVING” and “QUALITY OF LIFE HYPER BOOSTING” special thanks to: ToddM, GeorgeFL, CarolB, BillB, KevinG, MarkF, KC, SamK, AlanD, Spencer, and too many others to list

Who have each provided critical info to keep my DC6 Pro Mark III + DKC-850 in tip top shape

Thanks to this group, I have been able to

1. Debug and self-calibrate both my Mark III and DKC-850
2. Archive all my hundreds of Yamaha and 3rd party floppies to USB stick ... and can randomly play songs, create playlists and more using DKV Browser
3. Set up my hundreds of Yamaha CDs as albums on my SONOS system and access my piano’s library from anywhere in house using iPhone or iPad with full album art and search capabilities ... can create mixes of various genres or artists *without* having to swap audio CDs and FDs while interminably waiting for each to “sync”
4. From the “shared” out-of-print audio CDs and Yamaha floppies, I have been turned on to amazing music (performers and artists) that I might never have tripped across and now are among my favorites ... especially the oldies such as Art Blakey, Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, Celeste Tavera, Chet Baker, Edith Piaf ... and relatively new artists such as Diana Krall, Diane Schur,
5. Learn about the amazing performers on the Smart PianoSoft and PianoSoft Plus Audio such as Mike Garson (jazz pianist extraordinaire & musical director for David Bowie’s tours for 15+ years ... and saw him perform and met him at NAMM)
6. Add album art & MIDI metadata to all my favorite music using Tag&Rename
7. Meet some wonderful DK owners in person around the world ... Germany, Canada, Brasil, Mexico, Netherlands, Australia and the US
8. Optimize my bi-annual trips to NAMM in Anaheim to catch up with the music industry and Yamaha in general (I am not a music dealer, just semi-pro retired rock musician)
9. Meet up with the owner of PG Software (The Pianists series for DK and much more) to compare notes and exchange personal favorite “finds”
10. Meet up with BillB of Yamaha at NAMM to further our collective efforts
11. Debug Yamaha Musicsoft MIDI downloader issues where Yamaha tech support not up to speed
12. Track down out-of-print 25 Etudes Faciles Op. 100 (Burgmuller) class exercises for my teen-age daughters to benefits from (and for me to enjoy)
13. Help others track down out-of-print audio CDs to sync with their Smart PianoSoft MIDI purchases
14. Plus the hundreds of shared MIDI files (public domain and out of print) that have made my piano a brilliant addition to my family’s musical life

BOTTOM LINE

• *****“Piano World” or other news/sharing board would be satisfactory substitute ... would capitulate to FaceBook if necessary
• *****Would be happy to share $100 or so to next board moderator to set it up for us ... if someone cares to set up GOFUND ME or equivalent?
• *****Re: Facebook as platform ... no thanks, unless forced to ... most of my music industry or high tech buds have totally walked from it due to privacy issues, politics and general disgust with Facebook as company ... My small group of informed and passionate international DK owners share our utilities software and hard work MIDI collections via my FTP site

p.s. I don’t know the numbers for this group, but I was *disappointed* when some of us did an online survey in 2017 and the response was ... disappointing (!) ... “ENSPIRE FEATURES FOR OTHER DISKLAVIERS - 1H2017” ... only 30+ responses ... you are welcome to add your voice to this survey *if* you did not already take the survey ... survey URL = http://0036f23.netsolhost.com/dk_owner_survey_1q2017.htm ... Our goal was/is to provide Yamaha USA (and ourselves) evidence of market demand for upgrade path for pre-2016 Disklavier owners to benefit from certain "ENSPIRE" generation features. The bulk of the (Yamaha internal data) 60,000+ North American owners are MX 80/100 or Mark II/III who purchased theirs prior to the great financial crisis of 2008-2010

Aaron Zornes
San Francisco
first.last @ gmail or yahoo works